A SEVEN MILE HIKE — Spike Wells

A SERMON PREACHED AT S.LUKE’S QUEEN’S PARK BRIGHTON on 23rd April 2023. Text:LUKE 24.13-35

What do we do when we come here to church on Sunday mornings?

Well I’m sure you can think of a quite a few answers – but I’m talking about possibly the most important thing of all:

WE RECOGNISE JESUS IN THE BREAKING OF THE BREAD.

And that’s exactly what the people sitting round the table at supper in Emmaus did. But I suppose the first thing we have to ask is: Why didn’t they recognise Him sooner?

And that brings us to wonder about the mysterious nature of Jesus’s resurrection body as opposed to His body before death.

I’ve heard the ingenious idea that, because Emmaus is West of Jerusalem and they were walking in the afternoon, Cleopas and his mate had the sun in their eyes so they couldn’t see Him properly! I think that’s too far-fetched. I suppose it’s possible however that, although they were disciples, they hadn’t previously spent time with Him close up and didn’t therefore know exactly what He looked like.

I don’t know but we’re missing the point by only looking at the Emmaus story. Think back.

· Mary Magdalene at the tomb didn’t recognise Him at first – she thought He was the gardener.

· The disciples in the upper room were frightened at first when a figure appeared through the locked door. He had to assure them “I’m not a ghost” and to prove it by asking them if they had anything to eat.

· The disciples beaching their boat after fishing in the lake did not at first recognize the figure cooking breakfast for them on the shore.

So there are ways in which Jesus looks or seems different after the Resurrection. Surely that’s not surprising He is now a mystical figure. He is already through the barrier of death, beyond space and time. He is no longer subject to the laws of nature., so if we commune with Him, we are actually in the heavenly zone of a Messianic banquet.

Let’s go back and have another look at the Emmaus story.

Luke is writing his gospel probably around 80 or 90ad for the benefit of people who might well then have been saying to themselves:

Just imagine. Only 50 years ago there were disciples like us who actually met the resurrected Christ in person. How lucky they were. Wish we’d been there in those days!

Don’t be silly, says Luke to his first readers. You haven’t missed anything. Your experience is no different from that of Cleopas and his mate. Neither - I would add - is ours.

First of all, isn’t there something very familiar to all of us about being a Christian disciple but feeling a bit weary and dispirited?

Do you get sick – I know I do – of the incessant snipes at our faith by the press and the media? Do you worry about how long dear old S.Luke’s or even the whole Church of England is going to survive?

You go for a walk in Summer of about seven miles - let’s say west of Brighton to Shoreham airport instead of west from Jerusalem to Emmaus) – it’s hot and dusty. You might even have the sun in your eyes! God seems very far away.

Shoreham airport (but you’ve got to walk! Flying there is cheating……………

But then suddenly, by the gift of His grace, He lets you feel

His loving presence; your eyes are opened; your heart burns within you and you realise that in fact He was there all along.

This moment of joy will not last long - such bliss is rationed, even to the saints - but it is enough to restore your spirits and your hope.

Now suppose it had been Emmaus, not Shoreham airport, and you had sat down to supper there. Listen to how Luke describes the Last Supper before the Crucifixion and how he describes the meal at Emmaus. The parallel is unmissable. Put the two texts side by side:

Last supper: having taken bread

Emmaus: having taken the bread

Last supper: having given thanks

Emmaus: He blessed it

Last Supper: He broke it

Emmaus: and having broken it

Last supper: and gave it to them

Emmaus: gave it out among them

It was in that fourfold action of taking, blessing, breaking and giving that He became recognizable. It’s a eucharist being celebrated again.

Supper at Emmaus. Oh! NOW I recognise him………………..

Now go back to when Cleopas and his mate and Jesus were still on the road. I quote.

Starting with Moses and going through all the prophets, He explained to them the passages throughout the scriptures that were about Himself.

You see? He expounded the scriptures to them. Before they had supper. The MINISTRY OF THE WORD followed by the MINISTRY OF THE SACRAMENT. Just like us. Just like a typical Sunday morning at S.Luke’s. Cleopas and his mate might as well have been at one of our Eucharists

And that is precisely what Luke is driving at.

The story is designed to show that nobody can know and understand the risen Christ until they prepare themselves by feeding on the written word of God and then encounter Him personally NOT face to face on an individual human level but under the form of the sacrament which He instituted for us. In the breaking of the bread.

What does “breaking” mean? It means two things. The body of Christ is broken BOTH in the sense of suffering AND in the sense of being shared out.

Suffering and sharing. Sharing and suffering. A connection which is all too topical at the moment.

Are we a society that is bonded together? Are we prepared to fork out to see nurses no longer using food banks? Are we prepared to feel the pinch to make sure teachers are paid enough to stay in their jobs? Are we ready to suffer in order to share? Or do we want a government that makes sure any wealth trickles upwards and leaves everyone to fend for themselves?

If Christ’s body is broken in the bread of the Eucharist, then we Christians who feed on it must be broken too, for we dare to call ourselves THE BODY OF CHRIST.

At the end of Mass in the Easter season, the cry is “Go in the peace of Christ Alleluia” but for the rest of the year it is “Go in peace to love and SERVE the Lord.”

The bread was broken. The bread was shared. When we go out after coffee, it is for US to be broken and for US to share ourselves and what we have in the service of Christ.